Various types of bicycle carrier racks are known in the prior art. It is a well recognized axiom that the reduction of weight of all elements of such a self-propelled vehicle is of primary importance. Ease of attachment of the carrier to the vehicle has also received considerable attention by prior practitioners. With these two obvious goals in mind the prior art seems to have missed a very important point. How does the load fit to the carrier? For example, "basket" type carriers have been known for nearly as long as bicycles. But what do you do if your load does not fit in the basket? It is well within the purview of one skilled in the art to provide saddle bag carriers for motorcycles and the like. But what do you do if your load does not fit in the bag?
The load carrying capability of light-weight vehicles has, heretofore, not been utilized to its fullest extent. For example, the exact distance from one end to the other of many prior carrier racks fixes the maximum size of the load that can be carried. The exact fixed width of the prior carriers limits the width of an object that can be stably carried upon them.
It can be seen that present article carriers suffer from many disadvantages. My invention, particularly applicable to bicycles, but not limited thereto, overcomes all the previously mentioned disadvantages by providing a significantly improved adjustable load carrying capability while maintaining as good or better a strength to weight ratio and ease of attachment as any other known system.